The grand hallway was thick with tension. A white-haired girl, barely fourteen, knelt on the polished marble floor, trembling.
Before her stood a striking black haired woman in her mid-thirties, her cold gaze fixed on the child.
Selene's fingers clenched tightly around the ember-green fabric of her gown, her nails digging into her palms through the thin cotton.
"Mom… Please—Cough! Cough!—Listen to me." Her voice, soft and unsteady, barely escaped through her clenched teeth. Her breaths grew more ragged by the second.
THWACK!
A loud slap echoed through the hallway. The force sent Selene sprawling onto the cold white marble.
The servants flinched—maids and butlers dressed in crisp black suits and traditional black-and-white uniforms.
Some kept their heads low, others turned away, pretending they saw nothing.
But none dared to intervene, excluding a young blonde-haired maid who fidgeted restlessly in the hands of her mother, who was covering her mouth so the sound of her crying wouldn't disturb Acier, and get herself executed.
"Don't try to act ignorant!" Acier's sharp voice cut through the silence.
"Did you really think you could deceive me? Your father works so hard to protect you, and yet this is how you betray his trust?"
Her golden eyes narrowed to the limit, her tone distant and frigid.
"Why were you with that commoner? What are you planning?"
Selene pushed herself up, her knees rubbing against the cold stone of the ground. Her fists clenched so tightly that warm blood pooled in her palms.
'You don't have to listen to them, you don't need to impress them, live for yourself, Selene…'
Leor's words echoed in her mind—words of a mere commoner who had given her hope in the darkest moments.
She stared at the colourless marble, thinking over them.
Suddenly—
"You don't get to decide that!" she finally snapped, her blue eyes locking with Acier's golden.
"I can talk to whoever I want! And you—" her voice trembled, not with fear but rage. "You're not my mother!! My mother is dead. So shut the hell up and go fawn over that worthless excuse for a father."
Her once gentle voice now carried the weight of fury, her teary eyes twisting into a piercing glare, though tears still fell on the ground.
Acier's face darkened. Her hand lifted for another slap—only to stop midway.
She hesitated. Then, as if struck by a better idea, she lunged forward in a single fluid motion, her fingers closing around Selene's throat.
Dread crept up in Selene's mind, her heart as if about to explode out of her chest.
"Ckk—Ckkk! Stop… let go of me… ghh… hh… help me—"
Selene's weak gasps barely reached the ears of the servants. She cast a desperate glance at them, silently begging for help.
None of them moved.
None of them met her eyes.
It was too common an occurrence in the house of Matilda.
The young maid saw nothing—her ears and eyes were covered by her mother.
Then—
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Footsteps. Loud and firm.
The servants stiffened.
Fear rising in their hearts. Their hands clenched at their sides, palms slick with cold sweat.
In unison, they bowed their heads, eyes locked onto their polished shoes, no one daring to look up.
A single voice broke the tense silence creeping up.
"That's enough."
The words rang through the hallway like a commandment.
Acier's grip loosened. Selene collapsed, gasping for air.
Gah! Hah! Hah!
She greedily swallowed every breath she could, her vision swimming. When she finally steadied herself, her eyes landed on the tall, lean, muscular man standing before her.
Her father.
He ignored his now nervous wife entirely, stepping toward Selene instead.
The servants barely concealed their shock, this was something they didn't dare even imagine.
A golden light flickered to life in his right palm, radiating warmth even from a distance.
He crouched down to her level, one knee pressing on the cold marble, covering one side of his expensive-looking black pants with dirt. His right hand extended—gently touching her forehead with the bright light.
In an instant—
The pain faded.
The frustration, the anger, the exhaustion—gone.
For the first time in a long while, she felt… peace. Comfort.
From the last person she expected.
The man she hated most.
Her father.
But the illusion she wanted to stay shattered within seconds, as the memories crept in. The pain was gone, but her hatred remained.
Her jaw tightened. Her pupils shrank.
"...Why?" The word barely escaped Selene's lips.
Acier's expression twisted.
Her pink lips parted slightly, her golden eyes widening slightly. She rubbed at them as if trying to wake from a dream.
"Johan…? Honey?" she whispered dreamily.
Johan ignored her. His gaze remained locked onto Selene.
"I don't need a reason to protect my daughter." His voice was quiet yet very clear to Selene.
His hand moved from her forehead, resting lightly on her soft white hair.
Maids and servants exchanged glances with each other, their eyes wide, as if asking each other, 'Are you seeing what I am seeing?'
The young blonde-haired maid rushed to Selene's side, patting the dust off her clothes while her mother frowned.
Selene slapped the hand, patting her hair away with disgust.
Then—without a word—she rushed towards the giant stairway, also dragging the young maid by the hand with her.
The maids instinctively moved to stop them, but Johan simply raised a hand. They froze, obediently lowering their gazes to their polished shoes in silence.
'Hah, it went better than I expected, but I am pretty sure it's gonna completely change the story…' Johan thought dazedly.
*Ding
Suddenly, a sharp bell ringing sound startled him—
[System: Gambler's Gambit; Quest triggered]
[Host can make a choice in this quest. The story and points amount will change accordingly.]
[A: Grab Selene and Maria by the hair and beat them both unconscious.] (10,000 points)
[B: Comfort Selene.] (4,000 points)
[C: Poison Selene and brutally murder her weaker version.] (100,000 points)
[D: Mentally break Selene by executing all her academy friends in front of her.] (1,000,000 points)
Johan's cold eyes flickered. Then, widened in surprise—
'Finally, my first quest! But… WTF?!'
His body trembled slightly. Then his mind wandered back for a moment—
"Why? Why? WHY?! You fucking idiot!"
A furious scream rang through a dimly lit room. A young man, around twenty-one, clutched his computer screen in a death grip, his eyes bloodshot with frustration.
This was his tenth time playing the otome game: The Less I Know, The Better.
Every single playthrough, he tried desperately to save Johan, and prevent him from getting the bad ending.
But no matter what he did, Johan always met the same fate.
Killed by his own daughter.
He was just a third-rate villain. The main heroine's father. But it still felt like lazy writing on the developers' side.
Johan wasn't a boss you fought with brute force. The protagonist and other characters were far stronger. To defeat him, you had to navigate a ton of political and dialogue choices.
And yet—
No matter what he did, no matter how many times he changed his choices, even choosing entirely pacifist choices, Johan always managed to die, or become a pawn for the demons.
Meanwhile, Selene, the only character he liked, became just another fangirl in the protagonist's ever-growing harem.
It pissed him off beyond words. The stupid game felt like a toxic relationship he never knew he wanted.
"We can redeem the literal Goddess of Death, and make her join our harem—the chick who slaughtered billions—yet not Johan?!"
Every attempt ended the same way. The corny protagonist spouting his generic lines.
The same predictable, nauseatingly perfect "happy" ending.
"Why even give choices, when the ending is the same!!" He sighed, baffled.
And still—he kept trying. He didn't wanna look it up if this was not possible in the first place.
"Hah, I shouldn't take a game this serious…" he exhaled through his nose.
But Johan's story was just way too tragic.
Forced to kill his first wife with his own hands to save Selene. Forced to push Selene away because she was a living reminder of his sins. Forced to descend into darkness, alone.
James felt a strange connection to him, even though his life wasn't this epic, just an average college dropout, working multiple jobs to put food on the table.
"It just feels as if I am a cloud moving in the sky, with no control over what I am doing, In that, Johan is pretty similar to me." He laughed crazily, rubbing his head.
The world was unfair, he knew it from the moment he was born, but this game was his most beloved escape from the cruel reality on the weekends, yet he still couldn't escape it.
"If that trash MC can have such a happy ending, why not him??" he cursed the developers' families under his breath.
"James, how long are you gonna keep playing that stupid fucking game?!"
Clara's sharp voice yanked him from his thoughts.
"Go buy some ramen and milk, or we'll starve tonight."
James groaned, annoyed. "Why not go yourself? You have two legs. I have two legs. I am resting!! It's right around the damn corner—"
Clara flinched, her green eyes softening for just a second, then she sighed resignedly.
"Arghhh! Fine, just sit there and get fat!" With that, Clara stormed out, covering her face, slamming the door behind her.
'Clara was always like this, but this is just her way of showing love. She just wants to spend some time with me, but is too embarrassed to just ask. Maybe I should take her shopping tomorrow?' mused James, his lips curling up in a soft smile.
Silence settled over the two-bedroom apartment.
James exhaled sharply, shifting in his seat. The computer screen was now running the end credits of the game, but he wasn't really watching.
He glanced at the clock. 9 p.m.
She had left at 6.
James frowned.
Worried, he shoved on his crocs and rushed outside, without even turning off his PC or locking his door.
He dialed her number. Switched off.
Checked the supermarket. No sign of her.
Just as he was about to go across the town by crossing the main road, a sudden noise—
A truck.
It looked like it had lost control.
James frowned, but he was still out of the area, so not his problem. But then, he saw—
Clara, stupidly crossing the road—without even noticing the speeding truck.
James ran as fast as he could, and lunged towards her.
Clara recognised him, and just as she was about to speak, she was pushed with the full force of James, a grown man. She was hardly sixteen, so she was instantly pushed far away from the main road.
"JAMES!!" Clara shouted at the top of her lungs.
Unfortunately, pushing her hard resulted in him falling headfirst on the main road.
In front of her, James's body—bones, flesh, organs, entirely crushed— all turning into a red paste on the road.
The Truck then crashed into a nearby shop.
Clara stood frozen, her face covered with blood and pieces of James' brain.
"Hhhahh… ahh—ahhh—!"
Her whole body shook violently.
"No… no… no, no, no, no—!"
She fell on her knees, crawling as tears and snot dripped all over her baby face, rubbing her hands on the road, as if she could find James in the blood.